As an autistic person, and in following the footsteps of @carlodivarga-s and @madmozarteanfelinefantasy, two characters that I shall headcanon as being autistic are:
Don Ramiro from La Cenerentola (cannot for the life of him piece up the particulars of Angelina’s situation via only the vague details given to him, only understanding when everything gets cleared up for him from A to Z, and heavily fixated on the idea of finding a wife who’s not a gold digger. One could argue that he also hides from Clorinda and Tisbe around the bit of “Zitto zitto” to avoid getting overwhelmed from having to deal with their personalities and morals that overly clash with his. You can’t tell me he doesn’t get hyperfixated later on on the idea of finding Angelina again; how can you sing an aria as passionate as “Sì ritrovarla io giuro” and not be so???)
And Nemorino from L’elisir d’amore (intensely fixated on the “love potion” and the idea of getting Adina to fall in love with him; anything that stands in the way of his intents makes him very upset; believes literally everything everyone tells him and very likely rarely read body language that would give away any subtext to what people mean. “Una furtiva lagrima” is an exception and actually has him list out the details that stand out to him, but that’s because the situation is different from the ordinary for him and is also directly related to something that, as I said, he is heavily fixated on.)
Yes, maybe I’m looking too much into it, and I know that they both happen to be TENORS, which for opera people here is more than enough to justify their actions, reactions and decisions. But imo they make much more sense to me when I look at them from that lens, tenor or not. (also I have been hyperfixating on this idea since this morning XD)
